Mayor Abelardo Abundo vs.

COMELEC and Vega

GR No. 201716
January 8, 2013
Topic: Three- term limit; term of office of elective local officials

FACTS:

For four (4) successive regular elections, namely, the 2001, 2004, 2007 and 2010 national and local
elections, Petitioner Abelardo Abundo, Sr. (Abundo) vied for the position of municipal mayor. In both the
2001 and 2007 runs, he emerged and was proclaimed as the winning mayoralty candidate and accordingly
served the corresponding terms as mayor. In the 2004 electoral derby, however, the municipal board of
canvassers initially proclaimed as winner one Jose Torres (Torres), who, in due time, performed the
functions of the office of mayor. Abundo protested Torres election and proclamation. Abundo was
eventually declared the winner of the 2004 mayoralty electoral contest, paving the way for his assumption
of office starting May 9, 2006 until the end of the 2004-2007 term on June 30, 2007, or for a period of a
little over one year and one month. Then came the May 10, 2010 elections where Abundo and Torres
again opposed each other. When Abundo filed his certificate of candidacy for the mayoralty seat relative
to this electoral contest, Torres sought the formers disqualification to run.

The RTC declared Abundo as ineligible, under the three-term limit rule, to run in the 2010 elections for
the position of, and necessarily to sit as, mayor. To the RTC, the one year and 6 months service constitutes
a complete and full service of Abundo’s term as mayor. In its Resolution, the Commission on Elections
(COMELEC) Second Division affirmed the decision of RTC, which affirmed by COMELEC en banc.

ISSUE:

Whether or not Abundo has consecutively served for three terms.

HELD:

The petition is partly meritorious.

The consecutiveness of what otherwise would have been Abundo’s three successive, continuous
mayorship was effectively broken during the 2004- 2007 term when he was initially deprived of title to,
and was veritably disallowed to serve and occupy, an office to which he, after due proceedings, was
eventually declared to have been the rightful choice of the electorate.

The declaration of being the winner in an election protest grants the local elected official the right to serve
the unexpired portion of the term. Verily, while he was declared winner in the protest for the mayoralty
seat for the 2004-2007 term, Abundo’s full term has been substantially reduced by the actual service
rendered by his opponent (Torres). Hence, there was actual involuntary interruption in the term of
Abundo and he cannot be considered to have served the full 2004-2007 term.

Prior to the finality of the election protest, Abundo did not serve in the mayor’s office and, in fact, had no
legal right to said position. During the pendency of the election protest, Abundo ceased from exercising
power or authority. Consequently, the period during which Abundo was not serving as mayor should be
considered as a rest period or break in his service because prior to the judgment in the election protest,
it was Abundos opponent, Torres, who was exercising such powers by virtue of the still then valid
proclamation.

Petition is PARTLY GRANTED.